Stoke boss Mark Hughes has told his under-performing players they risk ruining their season if they allow their poor run to continue.

Sunday’s 4-1 defeat at Crystal Palace was their fourth loss in five Premier League fixtures and left them with a total of one point, three goals scored and 14 conceded.

The pressure is building on the manager after another promising summer transfer window. He had targeted an improvement on the ninth-placed finishes they have secured for the past three years, but is concerned doing so will soon prove beyond them.

“We have ambitions this season and, if this run continues any longer, we won’t be able to achieve them,” said Hughes, whose team were 2-0 down inside 11 minutes after goals from James Tomkins and Scott Dann.

“We need to turn this round very quickly. We haven’t really got going yet. We’ve been ninth in the Premier League in the last three years, and we spoke about being better than that.

“We’re giving ourselves too much to do. Confidence is damaged after the last few results, and you can see that in some of the players’ play. A number of them are lacking form.

“Collectively we need to be better. We can’t keep conceding easy goals like the first two.”